EGYPTIAN LOVER BABY. The Rebrand.

The entire country of Egypt (well, maybe just the tourism department) just released a new logo and ad campaign. Despite the fact that Egypt's newest effort is more intriguing and energetic than before, I can't help but think the new mark looks a little like a Cher logo from the 90s. Am I crazy? Despite that feeling, I do completely appreciate the attention and effort that it takes to make a hand crafted, calligraphic logo work. I don't mean to sound condescending by any means whatsoever. I just think that rebranding a country filled with some of the most intriguing artifacts and ruins on the planet would be really, really fun.

Last summer when I heard that the incredibly kind and absolutely inspiring folks at Under Consideration were publishing a book about building and designing portfolios, I sent off a couple of snapshots of my student portfolio on a whim. Amazingly and astoundingly they asked me to ship off my book—soft case, briefcase and all— to be photographed for publication! I am so insanely proud to have been included in this incredible and unprecedented survey of design portfolios I think my heart might burst with gratitude.

While I'm Shamelessly Promoting Myself... I might as well mention this other book that I'm in but never wrote about because I'm generally a little shy about personal promotion.

I JUST GOT MCSWEENY'S #33 IN THE MAIL.

And I happen to be very excited about it. Please refer to earlier blog post, Daydream Believer, concerning contents of said newspaper. I imagine that it will take me all month, if not longer, to digest.

Friday I attended a screening of Eileen Yagoobian's Died Young, Stayed Pretty — a documentary about rock poster culture.

Nothing like being shoehorned into a tiny theatre with a leaky ceiling on a Friday night to take in a few rambling screeds by the best practitioners of a dying art.

While visiting friends in Portland I ran across a copy of the latest edition of McSweeny's Quarterly Concern, The San Francisco Panorama (Issue 33, available at mcsweeneys.net). This hefty display of visual and literary virtuosity will go down in history as a celebration of the newspaper format, exploring the outer limits of the newspaper experience. Despite the fact that producing such beautiful, considerate newspaper would be completely impossible to execute regularly given the limitations of a real daily, The Panorama makes a grave and important point: If the physical pleasures and everyday realities of our current literary outlets are to survive, they must push themselves far, far away from the norms and conventions of emerging digital media. Do what digital media cannot. Give readers in-depth, localized writing and engaging points-of-view, presented in an unusual and tactile manner.

Attention all Rock and Roll poster art obsessives: new Documentary 'Died Young, Stayed Pretty' is playing this Friday in Seattle.

Thanks to a heads up (thanks Greg) by a friend I'll be attending an evening dedicated to the dissection of Graphic Design's hairy and bareknuckled underbelly, the rock and roll poster scene. The street level guerilla design and distribution of gig posters has been practiced by everyone who has played in a band, dated a band member, been friends with anyone in a band, or parented a teenager in a band — which pretty much covers almost everyone alive in the United States. This true american right of passage is the gateway drug for many graphic designers working today.

Handmade Nation is a documentary about the resurgence of craft in America.

I'm just going to take a minute or two to throw a couple of sticks into the talkbox / vocoder / autotune conflagration (ok so its not really a conflagration...I just like to be dramatic) that rages as of late.